The Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed July 2 for the hearing of a N10 billion fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Nollywood actor and politician, Emeka Ike, against Lere Olayinka, an aide to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.
Olayinka, who serves as the Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister, is being sued alongside the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over violation of Ike’s privacy rights and unlawful disclosure of his personal data.
Justice Salim Ibrahim fixed the date on Thursday after Ike’s lawyer, Leonard Adeh, requested an adjournment to allow the respondents file their defence.
During proceedings, only Ike’s counsel was present in court. Adeh informed the judge that the matter was listed for mention but raised concerns about the timing and nature of service on the respondents.
According to him, the court bailiff informed him that the respondents were only served a day before the hearing.
“I want to know the nature of service effected, particularly on the first defendant,” Adeh told the court, adding that the request was to avoid any jurisdictional issues.
The judge subsequently directed a court official to provide the lawyer with the proof of service contained in the court’s records.
After reviewing the document, Adeh confirmed he was satisfied and noted that Olayinka and INEC were still within the time allowed to respond.
Justice Ibrahim thereafter adjourned the case until July 2 for further mention and ordered that hearing notices be issued and served on both respondents.
NPO reports that the suit stems from a publication by Olayinka on X in May, where the FCT minister’s aide was accused of sharing Ike’s confidential voter registration details online.
The leaked information contained details of Ike’s voter registration transfer from Imo State to Abuja, which Olayinka used to question the actor’s eligibility to contest the House of Representatives seat for the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency in the 2027 general elections.
Ike, who contested the seat under the platform of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), lost the party’s primary election.
Following the publication, critics accused Olayinka of accessing restricted information from INEC’s backend portal, a system which is believed to be accessible only to authorised electoral officials.
However, INEC denied claims of a major cyber breach involving its Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) database.
The electoral body said the disclosure was linked to the misuse of valid internal credentials by authorised personnel rather than an external hack.
In the suit filed, Ike asked the court to declare that Olayinka’s publication of his voter information without consent amounted to a violation of his fundamental right to privacy and protection of personal data.
The actor cited provisions of Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution, Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Sections 24 and 39 of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023, arguing that his personal information was unlawfully exposed.
Ike also argued that INEC had a statutory responsibility to protect the private data of registered voters from unauthorised access.
He is seeking N10 billion in aggravated and general damages against Olayinka and INEC, jointly and severally, over the alleged breach.
The actor further wants the court to declare that INEC’s response to the incident amounted to an admission of liability and responsibility for failing to safeguard his personal information.
He is aslso asking the court to order Olayinka to retract th offensive post from his X account, issue a written apology, and publish the apology on the same platform.